[jfalford]

What are Ecic's Nitrogen IC cables and where do I find Some information about them?

 

[ServinginEcuador]

http://www.drsue.net/halogen/index.html

 

[jfalford]

Thanks, Can any tell me why these cables sem to be so popular?

 

[ServinginEcuador]

They're cheap and sound great from all accounts. Some, Ebonyks specifically, preferred his cables over these, but then again his cost 4 TIMES what Eric sells these for. These Nitro cables are reported as bringing out a bit more bass in a system also, which some, like me, desire.

Do a quick search here on the board under nitrogen and you should find a few comments on them.

 

[Ebonyks]

Here's what i posted in the other thread:

"Prosink (from what i think eric will let me tell about it) is an alternate termination methoid that he learned from kevin gilmore. It makes the cables much quieter and changes the sonic charcter of them. The prosink termination isn't visable on the cables themselves until you take them apart. If eric wants to provide a more extensive explation, he's welcome to, however, i don't want to be giving away his trade secerets here.

The halogen cables aren't bad, but i wouldn't be suprised if better options exist in the price range. If you're using something like outlaws though, be ready for a fairly big upgrade. Besides, spend the extra bucks at get the nitrogen, you won't be sorry

The nitrogen is the cable you guys should be looking at. Due to the prosink termination, the sonic charcter is almost akin to that of the VD nite, only more detailed. One of the (features?) of it is that it lowers the volume of your system significantly. Now, this doesn't seem like something important, however, if you use a cheap pot (IE: Any pot), you'll notice a pretty big difference in detail when using these cables. Even as compared to my cardas neutral references, these cables have made details of my music that i wasn't previously aware of, mosty in the lows.

These cables have a very defined bass, which your opinion of will be based on your sonic preferances. Many people i've talked to, including eric himself, like the deep pounding bass of these cables. The bass that's there is good bass, detailed, punchy, etc. But it's just too much for my tastes, and i suppose to some level the music i listen to (Bjork's Homogenic has seen better days)

I don't think i'm at liberty to comment extensively on soundstage, but even on etys, a sense of air is added to your 'tunes. I'd be curious to play with these cables on another setup, maybe even with something like the R-10.

Now, for the bads. These cables are stiff. I mean, really stiff. The nitrogens are slightly smaller in diamater than the halogens, and are a bit easier to work with, but they still require some tricky bending. In fact, the tension of these cables if put in the wrong postition lifts my OBH-8 off of the table. The wire itself is very thick too, these things remind me of the VD cables in their pure girth. And to answer the shouts of all you cable-building guru's on this one, no, the cable doesn't suffer from skin effect. Again, trade seceret

Also, if you tend to listen louder (Your pot at over 12 O'clock i think is a fair measurement) these cables probably aren't for you. They do quiet things down significantly, and i can imagine that even turning a pot to full wouldn't be loud enough for someone like this.

Overall, i really don't think many better cable options exist at this price range. Do i perfer my cardas neutral referances over these? Sure, but they retail for almost 4 times the cost, and at that rate, i'd rather just get eric's cables, and buy hookers and booze (Or a new stylus, upgrade the caps in my amp, etc)"

To further elaborate on why i perfer my own cables, it's due to my sonic preferances. Both cables repersent opposite ends of the bass scale, the nitrogen being lots of bass, and the neutral referance being not as much bass. Alot of head-fi'ers either have rigs lacking in bass (As in the case of eric himself), or simply are bassheads. I am neither of these, and because of it perfer my own cables. I'm not here to write a review of the cardas, but in short, they're bright, ridicliously revealing, and don't have alot of power in the low end, which complements some of the colorations of my rig very well.

Edit: That, and the things are so stiff that they lift my phono pre-amp off the table. I don't reccomend them for creek-like amps just for that aesthetic reason alone. Besides, if you're using a creek headphone amp, you have no busniess spending 120 bucks or so on cables, peroid

I could someone easily perfering eric's cables over my cardas neutral referances

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ebonyks Also, if you tend to listen louder (Your pot at over 12 O'clock i think is a fair measurement) these cables probably aren't for you. They do quiet things down significantly, and i can imagine that even turning a pot to full wouldn't be loud enough for someone like this.

What?

You'd need resistor(s) in a cable to attenuate volume at the appreciable levels you're talking about. Or some other components, something in there playing tricks with the sound. What's the point of a cable with a super high resistance and/or capacitance, this makes no sense to me. Then again, 99.9% of the voodoo relating to cables makes no sense to me.

 

[Ebonyks]

When did i say that the cable does not contain resistors, fewtch?

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ebonyks When did i say that the cable does not contain resistors, fewtch?

You didn't. I said that it must contain resistors, or something like that.

P.S... it's interesting that a Google search terms up nothing (zero, zilch) on "Prosink termination." Is this a trade name for something, and if so why hasn't Google picked it up from somewhere?

Hey man, voodoo is voodoo...

I'm sure people have actually died when they believed someone was sticking a pin into a doll that looked like them, so I'm just commenting off-handedly...

 

[Ebonyks]

Nope, the nitrogen does indeed have resistors in it fewtch.

That's what the prosink termination is

Here's eric's explaination on the subject:

The cables have a built-in 50 ohm resistance. This is necessary to properly terminate the cables so that they do not reflect any signal back to the source (due to the massive impedance artifacts caused by the low impedance RCA connectors connecting to internal cabling which is connected to a 10K+ high impedance potentiometer). The benefits of a proper termination are widely known in digital or radio-frequency circles...

This also helps to reduce the amount of noise in the circuit (it's well known that high impedance circuits are more vulnerable to noise), though much of the reduction of noise level is the result of the highly conductive 100% coverage shielding.

 

[fewtch]

Aahhhh... (strokes beard a few times, taps ballpoint pen rapidly against front teeth)...

P.S. I took out the quote in case you change your mind about discussing this "trade secret."

 

[Ebonyks]

Keep in mind that the 50ohm resistor is not a one size fits all sort of thing, and the resistor value used that will sound best is based on the resistance of the dialect of the cable.

It's also based on moon cycles, the amount of pixie dust used in soldering, and the mood of torgon. Such a complex art cable building is

 

[fewtch]

Dialect of the cable, eh? I once had a cable that spoke rapid Tagalog whenever I plugged it into anything made in the Philippines. Needless to say I got rid of it quick, spooked me out bigtime... to this day I still wish I knew what it said...

 

[tortie]

Quote:

Originally posted by fewtch Dialect of the cable, eh? I once had a cable that spoke rapid Tagalog whenever I plugged it into anything made in the Philippines. Needless to say I got rid of it quick, spooked me out bigtime... to this day I still wish I knew what it said...

LOL

 

[eric343]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ebonyks Keep in mind that the 50ohm resistor is not a one size fits all sort of thing, and the resistor value used that will sound best is based on the resistance of the dialect of the cable. It's also based on moon cycles, the amount of pixie dust used in soldering, and the mood of torgon. Such a complex art cable building is

More or less. The value of the terminating resistor is determined using a time delay reflectometer so that there are no signal reflections from the end of the cable; effectively, the resistor value is a function of the characteristic impedance of the cable (impedance is a combination of resistance, capacitance, and inductance). The dialectric (not dialect!

) of the cable has a very high DC resistance, usually in the high megohms, so the impedance cannot be measured using a normal multimeter-- you need a time delay reflectometer. (even if you had a multimeter that could measure resistance that high, the impedance is only loosely related to the dielectric's resistance.)

 

[ipodstudio]

I've mentioned this before in another thread but without much response so I'll try here. With the system detailed in my signature (or profile) which interconnects would you guys recommend in order to keep the most neutral sound within the system? I'm very undecided here. I've been leaning towards Nitrogens or Cardas NR for a while now. Still there but can't quite make up my mind which to go for...or would someone suggest something completely different? Most listened to genre is country music.
Thanks for any help.